Daemon Lover/House Carpenter

Hello, reader(s)! Because the blog missed two weekdays, I thought I'd start to make them up with some extra posts. So, today's folk infusion is "The Deamon Lover", a Scottish folk song known in America as "The House Carpenter" (Roud 14, Child 243). The song is also sometimes called "James Harris" or "James Harries".

The song tells the story of a woman whose former lover has come to visit her after being long away at sea. The woman tells this lover that she will not go with him him or marry him, because she now has a husband and children. In some versions, the husband is named as James Harris or his occupation is given as a house carpenter. The lover convinces her to come with him by promising her ships, wealth, and travel. The woman goes along with him, only to fall into mourning as she misses her husband and babe and discovers that her lover was not her lover at all, but the devil come to trick her into damnation. The devil shows her the hills of heaven and the hills of hell, and tells her she is going to hell, then sinks the boat, killing her.

Here is The Deamon Lover performed by Alasdair Roberts.

The lyrics, as arranged in Alasdair Roberts' rendition, are as follows:

Where have you been my long, long love
These seven long years or more?
I'm seeking for my former vows
You gave to me before'

'Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows
For they will breed sad strife
Hold your tongue of your former vows
For I'm become a wife'

He's turned him right and round about
And the salt tear blint his ee
'I never would have trodden on Irish ground
But for the love of thee'

'If I should leave my dear husband
And my two babes also
What have you to take me to
If I with you would go?'

'I've seven ships upon the sea
And the eighth brought me to land
With four and twenty mariners bold
And music on command'

She's put her foot on board the ship
No mariners she beheld
But the sails were of the taffeta
And the masts of the beaten gold

They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Til dismal grew his countenance
And drumly grew the sea

They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Until she saw his cloven foot
And she wept most bitterly

'Leave off your weeping' then said he
'Of your weeping let me be
And I'll show you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy'

'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As white as any snow?'
'Thon is the hill of heaven' he said
Where all good people go

'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As black as any coal?'
'Thon is the hill of hell' he said
'Where you and I must go'

He struck the top mast with his hand
And the main mast with his knee
And he struck that gallant ship in two
And he sunk her beneath the sea.

Here is the more lively American adaptation, House Carpenter, performed by American folk master Doc Watson.

Here is another arrangement of House Carpenter, performed in an even more lively rendition by the Irish band Sweeney's Men.

Also worth noting is Bob Dylan's song, the Man in the Long Black Coat, which tells the story from the House Carpenter's perspective. Because Bob Dylan does generally not allow his own recordings to be shared freely on the internet, here is that song covered by Mark Lanegan: